NIST works with industry and science to advance innovation and improve quality of life. We're looking for a Supervisory Mechanical Engineer to join our team! This notice is issued under direct-hire authority to recruit new talent to occupations for which NIST has a severe shortage of candidates.

Duties

The Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Group is part of the Building Energy and Environment Division, located within the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The group focuses on enabling improved indoor environmental quality by developing a better understanding of the phenomena of air and contaminant transport in buildings. These objectives are achieved through the development and use of simulation programs to model contaminant transport, the development and use of measurement approaches to assess indoor air quality, and technical contributions to and leadership of standards and guidelines for energy use and indoor air quality in buildings. If selected at the ZP-IV level, you will serve as Group Leader of the Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Group. Duties will include: Conducting research and providing technical leadership in developing, planning, and documenting independent research aimed to assess indoor air quality, including the measurement of contaminants emitted from materials and furnishings within buildings and those brought in from outside, the development of modeling approaches to assess ventilation in buildings, development of databases to assess the impact of building airtightness on energy use and indoor air quality, and the assessment of technologies to clean air. Overseeing the delivery and development of software tools used by industry and researchers to assess the impact of design decisions on contaminant levels in buildings. Contributing thought leadership and coordination of activities in the Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance Buildings Program. Managing the Indoor Air Quality Laboratory, the Indoor Air Quality Test House, and indoor air quality equipment at the Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility on the NIST Gaithersburg campus and leading your own research program in a scientific or engineering topic that will contribute to the Laboratory's goal of Energy-Efficient, High-Performance Buildings. Recruiting and developing staff, including the appropriate use of students, guest researchers, and contractors. Collaborating with senior leaders in providing strategic direction for research programs across NIST and the Engineering Laboratory. If selected at the ZP-V level, you will serve as Group Leader of the Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Group. In addition to the above listed ZP-IV duties, your duties will include: Planning and leading complex research projects that develop, evaluate, and implement the measurement science needed to determine the energy and indoor air quality impacts of buildings airflows as impacted by building envelope airtightening and ventilation system operation in various commercial and residential building types. Designing and conducting research in test homes including air sampling, evaluation of thermal comfort, and analysis of data related to the operation of residential heating, cooling and ventilation systems. Providing direction, guidance, and expertise on program development decisions by NIST in the area of energy-efficient, high-performance buildings. Providing technical leadership to principal investigators in formulating research solutions on topics related to indoor air quality and ventilation through input on written project descriptions and periodic monitoring of research activity. Leading national and international efforts to develop standards and guidelines to enable the building industry make use of rapidly evolving technologies to improve indoor air quality. Overseeing the overall planning, direction, and execution of activities related to Indoor Environmental Quality within the Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance Buildings Program.

Requirements

• U.S. citizenship
• Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service
• Suitable for Federal employment
• Completion of Confidential Financial Disclosure, Form OGE-450
• Bargaining Unit Position: No

Qualifications

Basic Requirements: A. Degree in Engineering: To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by ABET; or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics. OR B. Combination of education and experience: College-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following: 1. Professional registration or licensure -- Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT), or licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE) by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions. 2. Written Test -- Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination or any other written test required for professional registration by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. 3. Specified academic courses -- Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and that included the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A. 4. Related curriculum -- Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in an appropriate scientific field, e.g., engineering technology, physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a bachelor's degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions. In addition to the basic requirements above, applicants must meet the specialized experience requirements below: If applying at the ZP-IV: Applicants must have one year (52 weeks) of specialized experience at the GS-12 grade level (ZP-III equivalent for NIST). Specialized experience is described as experience in conducting and presenting peer-reviewed research on a topic related to energy-efficient or high-performance buildings. If applying at the ZP-V: Applicants must have one year (52 weeks) of specialized experience at the GS-13 grade level (ZP-IV equivalent for NIST). Specialized experience is described as experience in executing research and formulating solutions towards achieving energy-efficient and high-performance buildings. Applicants must also have experience with providing team leadership over junior researchers or engineering technicians. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done. We will credit all qualifying volunteer experience in your application. The qualification requirements in this vacancy announcement are based on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualification Standards Handbook. Applicant Reconsideration

Education

This position has an education requirement. Transcripts must be submitted to validate that the education requirement has been met. Unofficial transcripts will be accepted in the application package. However, an official copy will be required prior to a final offer of employment.

Education completed outside of the U.S. must be evaluated by an accredited organization to ensure that it is comparable to education received in accredited institutions in the U.S. Click here to view a listing of accredited organizations from the Department of Education's website. A copy of the foreign education evaluation (containing the results with a course by course listing) is required with your application.

Contacts

• Address Building Energy and Environment Division 100 Bureau Drive Gaithersburg, MD 20899 US
• Name: Katerina Andrews
• Phone: 301-975-4387
• Email: [email protected]